Double trade thrust urged

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 26

Double trade thrust urged

PA Wellington New Zealand must maintain simultaneous trade thrusts into both the United States and the People’s Republic of China, says the general manager of the New Zealand Export-Import Corporation (Mr C. B. Stanworth). Speaking to about 30 leading Wellington businessmen at a trade centre promotion, he said that this organisation fully’ supported efforts to seek more trade with China, but it also hoped manufacturers would keep up their efforts to achieve more penetration of the “potentially vast” United States market. “It would be a pity if the momentum created over several years by a number of manufacturers and the New Zealand Trade Fair in Los Angeles last year was lost,” he said. “We need both markets, .and my own view is that we can do very well in both of them if we keep up the effort. “We have a lot to offer China’s modernisation programme and in the United States — particularly California, where there are several million of probably the most affluent consumers in the world — our ability to satisfy demand for sophisticated, quality products with relatively short factory runs which would be uneconomic for many of the large American companies must : enable us to find our trade niche there.” Mr Stanworth said that the corporation’s recent decision to put its third New Zealand trade centre in Singapore was timely in view of the increasing i interest among New Zealand companies in South- 1 East Asian markets. Response to the corpor- |i

ation’s other two trade centres in Los Angeles and Sydney had been gratifying. The most recently opened one, in Los Angeles, had been advertised in New Zealand only over the past six weeks yet it would have six resident members by the middle of next month at fees of between $15,000 and $17,000 a year depending on the sizes of the fully furnished and equipped offices each member company takes. Mr Stanworth said that it had been conscious corporation policy to put New Zealand trade centres in prestige areas with h i g h-q ua 1 i t y accommodation because it assisted in creating a positive, highly visible identity for the country.